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Gregg was right, this is definitely "it's own thread" material. Still one of my best memories as a fan was Survivor Series 96 and seeing the crowd turn on babyface Shawn Michaels and cheer for Sid to kill him and Jose Lothario. https://www.tokyvideo.com/video/shawn-michaels-vs-psycho-sid-wwf-title-survivor-series-96 The eruption when he won. He got 20000 people to eat out the palm of his hands, just an all time performer. Rest in power Sid.

i don't post a lot of personal stuff on here. i'm very private in real life and don't like to share, not even with friends and family. last summer i really realized i had a drinking problem. i wasn't going hard every night, i wasn't blacking out, but i noticed that i was relying on alcohol to deal with life. As in, most nights i'd have 1-2 drinks casually, and on weekends i would have a drink in hand more than i wouldn't. decided to make a change. took a month off from drinking. it was hard, but do-able. after those 30 days i was going even harder and/or more frequently. Tried to go another 30. didn't make it. all of a sudden, i wasn't drinking casually during the week, i was drinking fairly heavily. tried to come up with a new plan. tried "don't drink alone". tried "don't drink during the week". tried a couple other 'plans'. none of them took. i can't half-ass this. it's all or nothing. at the beginning of this year, made an extremely serious effort to quit. it was the hardest thing i've ever done. no physical withdrawls, but it was breaking me mentally. i was consumed by a desire to drink. had a few more stumbles, but made it over the hump. Hit 44 days, then had a celebratory beer with my wife due to an accomplishment on her part. Then i binged for a week straight. I felt awful mentally. Definitely the whole "i'm not mad, just disappointed" vibe in myself. dumped my bottle down the drain. Threw away my Captain Morgan t-shirt. today is day 50. Six months ago, that felt like an impossible accomplishment. Now? i feel good. i still get the itch, but the magnetic pull doesn't feel as strong. i'm still concerned about being out with friends/family and them offering me a drink, but right now i'm getting by with just responding that i'm on a "dry run" at the moment. Haven't gotten any pushback, thankfully. I'm taking this one milestone at a time. Looking forward to 2 months/60 days. But i feel super good about 50 days and wanted to share it with somebody. Much love.

It’s actually kinda wild to me that DVDVR of all places has memory holed the fact that Jack Perry is a great in-ring guy. I mean, I realize it’s been a while since he’s been able to show it, first with the suspension and then mostly doing garbage-style Elite stuff since he came back, but we used to have a longer memory than this. He can GO. Danielson/Perry is going to be awesome.

I had the exact opposite feeling. Refreshing to watch a wrestling PPV that’s all action, as opposed to 50% wrestling, 50% commercials. Take a breath when you’re dead, there’s wrestling to watch.

These questions, and more are answered on today's episode of SOAP! (I just dated myself with that reference, didn't I?)

Aww man. Y’all know how much I’m on record on here over the part 20 years loving and defending Sid, even when internet wrestling discourse was at its lowest, Scott Keith-ian point. Sid, Fucking, Rules. Maybe the most physically charismatic wrestler of all time. Heaven needed fist bumps. RIP to the master and ruler of the world.

Sid needs his own separate thread befitting the master and ruler of the world.

Nigel made me tear up. The ending made me tear up. AEW RULES THE MOTHER FUCKING WORKD I LOVE YOU DEAN

Just thought of a great idea: Film a skit of MJF going to pawn shops throughout Buffalo to find his ring Garcia pawned.

lmao, apparently AEW offered Kevin Kelly severance when they fired him but he never signed and returned the form and they withdrew the offer (also probably because of all the, you know, disparagement he did) So he managed to get fired on his day off and fumble a bag after getting fired. Truly a generational talent in being a dumbfuck online.

Give Eddie a piper's pit segment every week until he's healed

The first time Raw came to Seattle was just after the Ultimate Warrior was fired the 2nd time and they brought in Sid as his replacement. During the taping they were doing some thing for the local crowd presenting a check to a local boyscout group or something. For some reason they send out SID to be the babyface that presents the check to this 10 year old who was there as a representative with his scout leader. Immediately people start yelling for Sid to powerbomb the kid. He looked around like he was contemplating it too.... RIP big guy. Truly one of a kind.

Wow. Having been recently immersed in Sid's 1999 WCW run, let me say that he's great at the art of pro wrestling, and even in the worst of circumstances, he did memorable stuff in promos, skits, and the ring. And Sid dapping what seemed like all of New York before taking out Jose Lothario and Shawn Michaels en route to the WWF Championship will always be one of the best pro wrestling things ever. Iconic.

My cousin is gay, I found out she's having a baby with her long time partner last night. What a pleasant surprise!

That was a really really good professional wrestling show. Super enjoyable, and the hours straight up flew by. Start time was 2 am Japan time, so rather than watching "live" I woke up early-ish this morning and just managed to squeeze the entire extravaganza in before starting work. Chatted through the whole thing with my good buddy who lives in Tokyo (used to post here as The Cobra 2). We synchronized our delayed-watching start times. Hook vs Jericho and Mone vs DMD were the only matches I did not get super into. The former felt more like a TV match for whatever reason (perhaps because I was really kind of hoping for a crowd reaction like the Large William match on Collision) and the latter kind of came off as a crowd killer. But I didn't *dislike* either of those matches or anything. MJF vs. Bruv and the main event both hit me as MOTYC-level and hugely enjoyable. I wonder if it's hard to get spearmint toothpaste green sneakers in Big Bill's size. Or maybe that was the only colour available in his size? Either way, I really enjoyed those sneakers. Needless to say I am fn *delighted* with the way the main event played out. It's good to know I am not the only one who was getting a little emotional watching that. Work started 7+ hours ago and I still have a markout buzz going as I type this out. That had to have been one of the all time great pro wrestling live crowds. They made EVERYTHING better by their reactions. Even the tbs title match, because I felt less alone in not being able to find a way into it. Some of the chants and reactions had me legit laughing in delight. (Edit: and it's fn cool that a couple of "us" were part of that crowd!) I mean, *literally* I laughed out loud, gasped out loud, and I was on the verge of actual tears... From watching a professional wrestling event. That'll do, AEW. That'll do.

Darby/Danielson at Grand Slam is gonna fucking slap.

Fuck. @The Natural being able to watch this in his time zone is making me tear up

Bryan Danielson is the new AEW World Champion. Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

And that's where I get angry at stuff like JR telling the story of what Ernie Ladd had to go through and instances of Bill Watts calling Ladd the N word. That's not to be encouraged just because Ladd somehow shook it off after being angry about it. Ladd had to shake it off because systematic racism just didn't stop when the modern American civil rights ended. People believe because we live in this "post racial" society, you can now have free reign to do whatever. Just don't get caught. I think the Mark Henrys of the world find themselves in a conundrum because the world of professional wrestling is a lot more diverse than it use to be. That and the whole "I lived to tell about and have tremendous success" is a feather in his cap. However, you cannot dismiss a certain type of trauma just because you live through similar type of trauma. There is a throughline but also case by case basis. The business doesn't need protecting. The people INSIDE the business need protecting.

Quiet as kept, for a guy who was missing for whole chunks of the Monday Night Wars, he was a central figure for one of the most historically important episodes of Raw ever: The March 17, 1997 go home edition where Bret Hart loses his mind and goes on a tirade after losing a cage match to Sid for the WWF title. You could tell they're going in a totally different direction from the last few years since Raw had been in existence. If you had been watching Raw since 1993 and WWF programming for last five years, it seemed like something from a different planet. They were starting to become dead serious about turning the company around. Not only does Bret start his heel turn but you see the shades of grey component, which would be frequently overused over the next several years. Here? It's masterpiece TV cause it had never been done in this manner after the territories went down. The six weeks before had set the stage cause you had Shawn winning the title back at the Rumble only to lose his smile, which set up the awesome Final Four match to crown a new champion. That in turns leads to Bret losing the belt to Sid the next night in Nashville after winning the aforementioned match. What looked to be the continuation of babyface Shawn Michaels as the top guy ends up with four or five guys vying for the WWF title and making the company infinitely more interesting, especially with the emergence of Steve Austin. You have the long time stalwarts in Taker and Bret, but you have this sort of outlier in Sid who is a vestige of the past but still very relevant. However, the most integral thing is EVERYONE is going after the WWF title. That's the story. Hence, Undertaker interfering in the cage match on the behalf of Sid (his WrestleMania opponent) and Austin interfering on the behalf of his mortal enemy for the past six months Bret Hart (Austin's WrestleMania opponent). Instead of just chilling backstage and watching on the monitors, each guy has a major stake in who wins and tries to ensure that they get to challenge for the WWF title at WrestleMania. Austin had won the actual Rumble match under somewhat dubious means, but Shawn vacating the title meant he necessarily wouldn't be getting a title shot at Mania. Since he didn't win the Final Four match for the vacant title, he wasn't guaranteed anything other than a match with Bret. And because Austin's interference doesn't work in the cage match, it's bittersweet cause he does screw Bret but doesn't get the title match at WrestleMania. However, the man who loses out the most is Bret Hart cause (1) Austin won the Rumble after being eliminated by Bret, (2) Shawn vacated the title and was out indefinitely thus meaning Bret couldn't avenge his loss at Mania the year before, (3) he lost to Sid the next night after the WWF title win as Sid was suppose to get the shot at Thursday Raw Thursday against Shawn, and (4) a month later in the match to win the title back Austin and Taker kept interfering in a match destined to stop people from interfering. This gives us the greatest moment in Raw history up to this point and probably still top 5 or 10 ALL TIME. AMAZING STORYTELLING. I say all this to say....Sid's "I DON'T KNOW SHIT, CRYBABY" is a monumental gem for both unintentional and intentional reasons.

Sid's promo skills are severely underrated. Whatever (often nonsense) he was saying, don't worry about that, just listen to how he sounded. The when and where he'd switch from whispering to shouting. Like a "Psycho" trying to stay composed and under wraps, only serving to make the fury worse when it finally unleashes. Can't remember who around here said it, but they said it best: Sid wrestles like he comes from an alternate dimension where wrestling is actually real. There's no hesitation or hint of inauthenticity. Sid never even entertains the idea that there is a fourth wall to break, let alone break it. Moves, words, whatever, few people capture the aura of being a wrestler like Sid did.

Sid might be the best squash match worker of all time, and if he's not the best he's at minimum in the top three. What presence.

This sucks. I'm pretty sure that infamous(probably forgotten by now) "Steel Davey Richards" quote was preceded by me saying we should have more Sid just power bombing fools and fist bumping fans. And I don't mean this to shame any of the current wrestlers in WWE or AEW, but if you dropped prime Sid into either company he'd instantly be the baddest most awesome dude in the company. It's not that he's a better wrestler or anything. It's just his whole look. He just popped off the page. Kinda like the Ultimate Warrior but more relatable? I dunno. Long live the master and ruler of the world. PS. Fuck man even that catch phrase. Like how is a master or a ruler different? They're not really, but only Sid would feel like you need to know he was both.

Its worth noting that Austin & Rock in their primes only had one combined reign that went longer than 4 months, and that didn’t stop them from becoming two of the biggest stars of all time. The actual length of a title reign means very little. It’s about making the most of what you’re given, and Swerve did that with his 4 months, unequivocally. Just based on tonight’s performance alone, I think he ensured that this won’t be his last world title reign.

Fuck yeah. Obviously Danielson’s night, but Swerve’s performance should not be underrated. He played his role perfectly and then some.

How can you not be romantic about pro wrestling?

Y'all know how much I love Bryan Danielson. So fucking happy and relieved Bryan Danielson has finally won the AEW World Championship.

The bit where Danielson hit the first running knee, and Swerve just leaned into it like an Ishii and did his sicko deathmatch grin was fucking perfection. Talk about a wrestler who knows his character, he played a relentless heel like he needed to without ever being inconsistent with his character up to that point. That's the whole Attitude Era-ey shades of grey thing done right, Swerve as this focused, ruthless, amoral bastard who will accept the cheers and the hatred as they come, so long as his current actions help him to win the match and be the best.

Too early to tell if this was a miss or this was step one in a longer story they are starting. For example, Mox returns on Dynamite and gets mad they went and got a belt with someone not in the group and says Pac has to earn his way into BCC etc. not saying they will do that but they still have options to still tell the story if its a direction they want to go in. Have we talked about the "cameraman" with the colorful underwear and matching socks? You guys are so focused on Danielson you skipped the important things.

The whole main event was great, obviously, but the last 10 minutes were just transcendent pro wrestling.

THAT'S WHY WE LOVE WRESTLING.

I’m so very glad Nana is getting his moment. He was so great in ROH it was a shame that it took such a long time for him to get his recognition and paid for being the talent he is. it’s a shame that Jimmy Rave didn’t get to be there with him.

One of the best things to come from AEW? Prince Nana getting his flowers. Liked Prince Nana ever since Ring of Honour and the Embassy.

Lol I wish I got to hear that Taz inseam comment. You could have read that to me blindfolded and I'd be like "A Sicilian said this." It's a very real phenomenon. I'm 6'2, but I bet you me and Taz wear the same pants. The entirety of my height is waist-up, I look like heavy metal Cotton Hill. I knew baby me was right to support him against Sabu.

Yeah, the world in which Ricky Starks wasn’t given chances does not exist. At some point, you just have to acknowledge that the booking was there for them and guys like Ricky and Wardlow just didn’t make the most of it, and that’s why they’re sitting out their contracts at home while Swerve jumped WAY ahead of them and just headlined Wembley. Ricky is just super inconsistent. In the past, I’ve compared him to a sports team that plays to the level of its competition. Can absolutely look like the next main eventer sometimes, but then at other times comes across like just another guy, totally replaceable. And true main event level guys just don’t do that. The Rock was still The Rock, even when he was working a program with Billy Gunn. Ricky worked Juice Robinson (pre-Juice getting over with the AEW crowd) and immediately felt like a 3rd-tier guy. Like, it actively hurt Jay White’s intro to AEW that Ricky was suddenly coming across like a nobody.

Now that you’re the top of the next page, I bet you feel very silly.

Remember the last person to beat Danielson in AEW was Jack Perry in the Anarchy in the Arena match.

They had Ross, Solie, Bob Caudle and Lance All at one time, which could very well be someone’s Mount Rushmore of wrestling announcers.

I don't mind the Perry thing. He's not the most interesting choice but he will get heat in Chicago for sure and no one cares if he eats a loss. I want to believe that they're finally doing Stop The Moxley. Don't let me down again, TK.

Sid really doesn't get enough credit for being one of the first guys to break the mold and start getting cheered even when he was a heel. Especially in a time when promoters weren't willing to acknowledge it.

Whether Sid was good or not in the ring (he wasn’t) is besides the point. He was as pro wrestling as pro wrestling gets. Stuff like Cheatum The Midget or all kinds of WrestleCrap he was mixed up in are just as entertaining and as important as some five star classic. I really can’t imagine what pro wrestling fandom for me would be without the master and ruler of the world bumping fists and wrecking dudes with powerbombs and having things like his ridiculous stumble on the mic against Nash.

Hardest agree. Maybe this doesn't mean much coming from someone as out-of-the-loop as I can sometimes be, but one major reason I really enjoyed his time with the title is how contemporary his character feels. In a world sometimes dominated by '80s throwbacks and nü-metal bodybuilders, his whole presentation and disposition screams 'modern era' to me -- I definitely have to add my name to the pile of those saying he's not had his last reign.

Not much more I can add to what was an absolutely spectacular show other than, I've always been a Hangman guy but I've never been more of a fan of him as it stands right now. Every week he gets more unhinged, his hair more mangy and his mustache more spectacular.

Just trekked back across London after watching our second All In, this one with my youngest son (12), and it was another amazing show. Highlights for me were the Storm/May match, the Casino Gauntlet match, with Jarrett's reaction in particular just epic, and the main event. My personal best bit was the completely surprise Nigel McGuinness return, coming out to his ROH circa 2005 music, and getting the response he so richly deserved. Having first seen McGuinness/Danielson/Briscoe/Pac at events in leisure centres in the UK in 2005 or 2006, it was quite emotional seeing how far they've all come.

We’re probably getting Danielson/Nigel on some random Collision in a few weeks. Let that sink in.

To quote the late great Dean, AEW RULES THE MOTHER FUCKING WORLD!

As they should

@twiztor Congratulations. Every day clean is an accomplishmemt and should be recognized. That must take some serious strength on your part, to kick without detox or rehab. I wish I had that kind of strength. Unfortunately, I jones for Mr. White more than not. I did a three week stint in rehab. I've tried NA. I've done outpatient therapy. I've done one on one therapy. The only thing keeping me clean for an extended period is a lack of money. I think it may have been Denis Leary who said, "Cocaine is God's way of saying you make too much money.". If your family or friends are any kind of support system, you shouldn't have to explain why you're not drinking. Just saying you don't want to should be sufficient. I'm starting to ramble, so I'll just close by congratulating you once again.

The Estonian Museum of Sport has uncovered the only known footage of George Hackenschmidt wrestling, a 15 minute match with Joe Rogers from 1908. No word on a public release but you figure it'll happen sooner or later. Never in my life did I think I might see Hackenschmidt wrestle. Living in an age of wonders and whatnot.

I’m so happy